Shelling intensified in eastern Ukraine overnight on Wednesday, with Kiev and rebels trading blame for opening fire. Local officials said 19 people, both civilians and militiamen, were killed and over a hundred injured in the bombardment.

“With the onset of daylight the Ukrainian artillery carried
out a large-scale shelling of settlements in the Donetsk People’s
Republic almost on the entire extension of the contact line. The
most violent unsighted bombardment by the Ukrainian artillery
targeted Donetsk, Shirokino, Gorlovka and Spartak,” Eduard
Basurin, spokesman for the Donetsk People’s Republic’s (DNR)
Defense Ministry, told the press.

As for the losses incurred by the DNR militia, “the number of
the deceased is 14 people; 86 are injured, including 18 –
seriously,” Basurin is cited as saying by Tass.

Earlier, Donetsk mayor, Igor Martynov, said that six civilians
had been killed in the city’s south-western Kirov and Kuibyshev
Districts on Wednesday, while 90 people “both militiamen and
peaceful civilians” sustained injuries.

Chief Doctor at the Petrovsky District Hospital, Igor Rutchenko,
said that the Ukrainian forces persisted in shelling the hospital
even as the injured were being brought there, forcing a patient
evacuation.

“The hospital has been without energy for over two hours. The
shelling of the area goes on. It was decided to evacuate the
victims,” the chief doctor told Donetsk News Agency at around
3:00 pm GMT.

The Donetsk mayor’s office said that patient evacuations have
also begun at other hospitals in the shelled Petrovsky district,
Intefax reported.

The General Staff of Ukraine said that Kiev’s forces were using
heavy artillery that had previously been withdrawn from the
frontline under February’s Minsk peace deal.

“In order to stop the enemy’s offensive and to avoid
casualties among the troops, the Ukrainian military command –
after warning all of its international partners – was forced to
use artillery, which was in the rear areas defined by the Minsk
agreements,” the General Staff’s press-service said as cited
by RIA-Novosti news agency.

Moscow is deeply concerned by the deteriorating situation in the
Donetsk Region, largely provoked by the armed forces of Ukraine,
Dmitry Peskov, the Russian President’s press-secretary, said.

“Naturally, Moscow is closely watching (the situation) and is
deeply concern by the provocative actions of the armed forces of
Ukraine, which, as far as we can tell, largely instigate the
situation,” Peskov is cited as saying by Tass.

Moscow “expects the unconditional implementation of the Minsk
agreements” and will form its position depending on the
developments on the ground, he added.

The OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (SMM) is closely
watching the situation in Donetsk, Michael Bociurkiw, SMM
spokesperson, said.

Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, reported that Moscow
had addressed the Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe (OSCE), asking for a report on the number of killed and
injured in the latest escalation of the conflict in eastern
Ukraine.

“Judging by the information we’re getting from the frontline,
self-defense militia are reporting disastrous damage to civilian
infrastructure – hospitals, kindergartens, schools and
residential buildings. And its civilians who are dying there. The
Ukrainian army reports its losses are mainly on the military
side,” Lavrov said.

“They opened fire on our positions across the entire front
line: at Shirokino, Elenovka, Maryinka with 120,122 and 125-mm
rounds. We have been engaging them for seven hours now,” he
added, as cited by the Donetsk news agency.

“At three in the morning, the enemy started firing on our
positions near Maryinka and Krasnogorovka, using heavy artillery.
They are trying to make advances, but our forces have repelled
every attack and are keeping the situation under control,”
he said as cited by RIA Novosti.

“The Abakumov and Skochinsky mines lost power, trapping 379
people,” he said, according to Interfax. Later he reported that
the Zasyadko mine in Donetsk’s Kiev region had also lost power,
trapping a further 576 miners underground.

All of the trapped miners at the Zasyadko mine had been evacuated
to the surface by mid-day on Wednesday after “electric power
supply was restored,” the DNR Emergencies Ministry said.